All Bar One and Toby Carvery owner Mitchells & Butlers to close 20 sites
All Bar One and Toby Carvery owner Mitchells & Butlers will permanently close 20 sites due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The pub and restaurant chain, which also owns Harvester, O’Neills and Miller & Carter, said it had decided not to reopen the sites after assessing expected footfall and business layout.
It opened around 95 per cent of its estate after the first lockdown ended. The branches that have been earmarked for closure did not reopen when restrictions on hospitality firms lifted on 4 July.
The company has begun a redundancy consultation with affected staff, according to reports. It was not clear this morning how many roles were at risk.
In a statement this morning a Mitchells & Butlers spokesperson said: “As announced in September, M&B re-opened the vast majority of its estate, approximately 95 per cent , after the first lockdown ended.
“The remaining sites have been under review on a case-by-case basis since, taking into account factors such as expected footfall and business layout.
“We have taken the difficult decision not to reopen some of these sites and are working with leaseholders on next steps.”
In September, Mitchells & Butlers reported that like-for-like sales for July were down 32.4 per cent compared to the previously year, due to reduced capacity and consumers’ caution to visit pubs and restaurants.
It secured like-for-like sales growth of 1.4 per cent in August due to the government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme, but posted a sales decline of 6.4 per cent in the first three weeks of September as fears over a second wave of infections began to mount.